Leeds-based Sky Bet’s ready for a rush of election business

Sandro DiMichele, head of PR and social at Sky Betting and Gaming, writes for Digital City on the company’s General Election activity.

As the General Election campaign enters its final days, the British public are clamouring to bet on Thursday’s outcome.

A survey of 520 Sky Bet customers shows that Labour would be the largest party if the election were based on their views. 31 per cent would vote Labour, 30 per cent Conservative and 19 per cent are undecided.

96 per cent of bets have been backing Labour and Sky Bet customers clearly fancy a long odds punt on Jeremy Corbyn, whose odds for next PM have shortened from 7/1 to 7/2.

Corbyn and a Labour majority has been one of the most popular selections, backed in from 25/1 to 14/1.

The fact that 69 per cent of bets on the US election went on Trump and 65 per cent of bets on the EU referendum went on Leave suggests that they could be hinting at the likely result.

The shock EU referendum result proved profitable for Sky Bet after Remain was backed heavily at odds-on, while Donald Trump’s victory resulted in heavy losses due to customers snapping up attractive prices on another shock outcome.

Sky Bet took £1m in stakes on the day of the EU referendum and we’re expecting to take £2m in election bets on Thursday.

You might be surprised at the breadth of betting markets, not least our 150 bespoke RequestABet specials, the most popular of which has been 25/1 for the Tories to win between 300 and 349 seats, Labour to win 250-299 and turnout to be between 65 and 70 per cent.